Keeping woodworking bench dogs handy but out of the way
Posted By RichC on January 23, 2020
It has taken years, but I’ve finally decided to move my woodworking bench dogs from the tool tray (see below).
A bench dog is an accessory used on a woodworking workbench to allow clamping of wooden items while being worked or planed.
Ever since building my work table and vices with bench dogs back in the 1980s, I’ve stored the homemade oak and maple “pegs” (dogs) on end in a can or cut off pipe. Unfortunately they stick up too high out of the tool tray or if I put them on their side, they get buried. I thought about eliminated the storage tray, but it is a tradition place to put a few tools off the table’s surface while working on a project and “would” still be nice to have if I used it properly (it is forever a catchall).
The problem with the bench dogs stick up above the table’s surface is that they are in the way when working on projects that extended over the edge of the table. It happen again last weekend when taking apart a few antique Christmas displays inherited from Brenda’s parents, so I had it with moving them. Finally, 
I took 20 minutes and a few pieces of scrap oak, I added a spot to the side of the table where they are handy, yet below the surface. Now the work table’s surface is flat and clear from any vertical items sticking out of the tool tray … something that should have been done decades ago!
I also left enough room for a small square, but dislike the aluminum adjustable bevel square, so might try to find a simple small antique Brass and Rosewood Try Square … stay tuned (I sort of wish Brenda’s furniture-maker grandfather would have passed one down).
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